Medical institutions require various medical resources, such as real estate, human resources, medical systems, equipment and instruments, to provide healthcare services to patients. The medical resources employed at a particular medical institution greatly impact the efficiency, cost and revenue associated with a desired medical procedure. For example, a current system may allow a procedure to be completed in 20 minutes with 10 minutes of setup time, while another system may complete the procedure in 10 minutes with only 2 minutes of setup time. Less time means more procedures, and thus more revenue and lower patient waiting time for the procedures. As medical technology advances, particularly in the area of electronics and computer aided instruments, medical institutions must evaluate the feasibility of investing in new, additional or upgraded medical resources to better serve patients and become more efficient and profitable.
For example, medical diagnostic and imaging systems are ubiquitous in modem health care facilities. Such systems provide invaluable tools for identifying, diagnosing and treating physical conditions and greatly reduce the need for surgical diagnostic intervention. In many instances, final diagnosis and treatment proceed only after an attending physician or radiologist has complemented conventional examinations with detailed images of relevant areas and tissues via one or more imaging modalities.
Currently, a number of modalities exist for medical diagnostic and imaging systems. These include computed tomography (CT) systems, x-ray systems (including both conventional and digital or digitized imaging systems), magnetic resonance (MR) systems, positron emission tomography (PET) systems, ultrasound systems, nuclear medicine systems, and so forth. In many instances, these modalities complement one another and offer the physician a range of techniques for imaging particular types of tissue, organs, physiological systems, and so forth. Health care institutions often dispose of several such imaging systems at a single or multiple facilities, permitting its physicians to draw upon such resources as required by particular patient needs.
Modem medical diagnostic systems typically include circuitry for acquiring image data and for transforming the data into a useable form which is then processed to create a reconstructed image of features of interest within the patient. The image data acquisition and processing circuitry is often referred to as a “scanner” regardless of the modality, because some sort of physical or electronic scanning often occurs in the imaging process. The particular components of the system and related circuitry, of course, differ greatly between modalities due to their different physics and data processing requirements.
Medical diagnostic systems of the type described above are often called upon to produce reliable and understandable images within demanding schedules and over a considerable useful life. To ensure proper operation, the systems are serviced regularly by highly trained personnel who address imaging problems, configure and calibrate the systems, and perform periodic system checks and software updates. However, medical resources such as the above systems may become outdated, or relatively inefficient and costly compared to current medical systems. Accordingly, a medical institution may desire an investment analysis of various capital investments, such as medical products, systems and services offered by a medical resource supplier.
Unfortunately, the medical institution may not have access to a financial analysis system, or operating statistics for a particular medical resource (e.g., medical diagnostic and imaging systems). Furthermore, the financial systems currently available may not be suitable for analyzing financial data associated with medical institutions, and more particularly to capital investments in medical resources. For example, medical institutions may have specific financial data (e.g., variable and fixed costs, revenues, deductions, etc.), which is significantly different from financial data associated with other fields and industries. Even within the medical field, the specific financial data may vary greatly from institution to institution.
Accordingly, there is a need for a technique for analyzing an investment in medical resources for a medical institution based on operating data from the medical institution. More particularly, there is a need for a financial analysis system allowing interactive exchange of information, such as client data and investment analysis reports, between a remote client interface and the financial analysis system via a network.